I ran across two intriguing statistics today that impact online advertising success. If you understand the link between the two, you will realize something about online advertising that the great majority of your competitors do not.
The first statistic:
76% of marketers do not use behavioral data for online ad targeting.*
That number is remarkable to me. The ability to target ads is the whole point of online advertising.
The creation of a successful promotional campaign requires the right product, sophisticated competitive positioning, and creativity. Creating this alchemy is hard work. 76% of advertisers take all of this effort and flush it down the drain by failing to use the behavioral targeting tools that virtually every social media and search platform provide for free.
We are Not Alone
To understand the impact of this on online advertising success, let’s look at the next statistic:
The average person gets bombarded with over 1,700 banner ads per month, but only sees half of them.*
Today’s media environment is an open fire hydrant of ads. As consumers, the only rational response to this deluge is to set up unconscious filters that make irrelevant ads invisible.
Yes – invisible. Our brain doesn’t even register an ad unless it is compelling in the context of current, top of mind needs or desires.
So, how important do you think careful targeting is to match your value proposition to your market segment?
What to do?
You have heard that response rates for online advertising are notoriously low. For example, the clickthrough rate (CTR) of most display advertising on Facebook ranges from 0.5% to 1.6% (2018).
Statistics are large numbers, however. Many advertisers may see a 1.6% CTR or less. Take one guess whose advertising is faring better?
This lemon is your lemonade: You can use your competitors’ lack of media planning to leapfrog their invisible ads. You can be the marketer that is seen first by doing the work to develop an ideal buyer profile and using that profile to link to the online behaviors of the buyer.
With 76% of online advertisers taking the easy way out, this may be the best money you ever spend to create online advertising success.
* https://www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/advertising-statistics/
